The Jeddah Grand Prix

A short look at the positive and negatives of the new Grand Prix.

Let’s start off with what positives have come out of this track reveal. F1 has touched down in yet another country which, as a global sport is a massive positive. F1 has been trying to get the love and interest of the Middle East for a long time and we now have several tracks on the calendar or in the pipeline for next season in this part of the world, which again is a massive bonus. Look, I’m not trying to kid anyone here I really had to think hard for just those 2 positives because the track is absolutely shocking. Granted there’s some “straights”... 1 real one as the start finish straight, but seriously F1 are shooting themselves in the foot here. For the last 4 years we’ve been saying that the current generation of cars create such a big wake that it’s impossible for a car to follow sometimes 5 seconds behind, due to the amount of downforce lost. So why have we gone and put 20+ high/mid speed corner around a track? I understand that it will probably be a better racing circuit when the new generation of cars come through but still come on. Without getting political here we’re only going to Saudi Arabia because they’re filthy rich and paid the most money to host a Grand Prix. I don’t know enough about the human rights issues or the bombing I heard about around the time of the Formula E race but one question I do ask is why go somewhere unknown to “improve” racing when clearly, Turkey, Mugello, Malaysia all provide great racing and would happily host a 1 off Grand Prix this year? Let me know your thoughts on this?

• Liam Robertson